RDF Applicability

You can add applicability metadata to a DocBook document to declare the hardware or software products that the document applies to.

Where to Add Applicability Metadata

Applicability metadata takes the form of RDF triples. For a DocBook 5.0 document, you add it to the info element at the start of the document.

How to Write It

Typical applicability metadata for a DocBook document looks like this:

<rdf:RDF xmlns:rdf="http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#"
         xmlns:bibo="http://purl.org/ontology/bibo/"
         xmlns:vivo="http://vivoweb.org/ontology/core#"
         xmlns:doap="http://usefulinc.com/ns/doap#">
    <bibo:Document rdf:about="">
        <vivo:hasSubjectArea>
            <rdf:Bag>
                <rdf:li rdf:parseType="Resource">
                    <doap:shortdesc>P/N 1234</doap:shortdesc>
                    <doap:name>Foo 3000</doap:name>
                    <doap:description>Quantum Accelerator</doap:description>
                    <doap:revision>1.0.1</doap:revision>
                </rdf:li>
                <rdf:li rdf:parseType="Resource">
                    <doap:shortdesc>P/N 5678</doap:shortdesc>
                    <doap:name>Foo Explorer</doap:name>
                    <doap:description>Config File Viewer</doap:description>
                    <doap:revision>1.0.2</doap:revision>
                </rdf:li>
            </rdf:Bag>
        </vivo:hasSubjectArea>
        <!-- Other RDF properties ... -->
    </bibo:Document>
</rdf:RDF>

In this example:

The bibo:Document element declares that this file is a document and that this document is the subject of the applicability metadata.
The vivo:hasSubjectArea element declares that this document applies to the following products.
The products are indicated by rdf:li elements all wrapped within the rdf:Bag element. Each rdf:li element has rdf:parseType set to Resource; this enables you to specify the properties of each product inline.
The properties of each product are indicated by elements in the doap namespace. In PACBook, doap:shortdesc is used for the product’s part number, doap:name is used for the product name, doap:description for a description of the product and doap:revision for the product version number.
Note that you need to declare the rdf, bibo, vivo and doap namespaces.

Roadmap

The ultimate intention is that each rdf:li could point to an external RDF resource which contains the details of the product in a single location, e.g. in a products database. This is not yet implemented.